1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems and methods for maintaining a flow of a liquid from one of a plurality of supply receptacles to a liquid dispensing apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to apparatus and methods for automatically selecting one nonempty supply receptacle from a plurality of supply receptacles as each of the supply receptacles is emptied and using the selected supply receptacle as a source of supply for a liquid dispensing apparatus.
2. The Background Art
Many facets of modern society routinely rely on the operation of liquid dispensing systems which dispense controlled amounts of a liquid into a fluid flow. For example, chlorine compounds are used as a disinfectant for both large and small scale culinary water supplies as well as being used to control microorganism growth in swimming pool water and in other industrial uses. Often chlorine containing liquids and other useful chemicals are transported and stored in liquid supply receptacles such as metallic or plastic drums which are well known in the art or smaller bucket-like receptacles or tanks.
Many liquid dispensing systems are often left operating for long periods of time without human intervention or attention. For example, owners and operators of swimming pools often let several days pass before checking the condition of the pool water and the operation of the pool equipment.
Also, many commercial and industrial sites are located a distance from a manned office and often operate unattended for long periods of time. In such applications, a reoccurring problem is the unnoticed emptying of a supply receptacle or the failure of a pump of other system component resulting in the loss of liquid dispensing function for a time. The negative consequences of such an unnoticed failure may be serious if it involves the disinfection of a culinary water supply or some other vital system.
While practices such as utilizing larger supply receptacles and scheduling more frequent inspections would do much to alleviate such problems, both economic and practical constraints prevent such approaches from being completely effective. Moreover, due to the non-vital nature of many liquid dispensing systems, owners and operators of such systems often forego taking effective steps to prevent the interruption of a flow of a liquid chemical because of the added cost or inconvenience.
In view of the problems and disadvantages which have heretofore existed in the art, it would be an advance in the art to provide a system and method for automatically maintaining a source of supply to a liquid dispensing system. It would also be an advance in the art to provide a system for maintaining the availability of a source of liquid which is reliable and which may be left to operate unattended.
It would be another advance in the art to provide a system for selecting one of a plurality of liquid supply receptacles as a source of liquid which may be installed at a remote site and which can announce to a distant location when attention is required at the remote site, such as when a supply receptacle has been emptied. It would be another advance in the art to provide a system and method for selecting one of a plurality of liquid supply receptacles wherein the sensing element does not require direct contact with the liquid.